Iraq: Two dead, 14 abducted

Published December 24th, 2007 - 12:40 GMT

A bomb hidden inside a minivan went off near the Baghdad governor's office on Monday, killing two people and wounding six others.

A bomb hidden inside a minivan went off near the Baghdad governor's office on Monday, killing two people and wounding six others. The bomb exploded near the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government, the U.S. and some other western embassies.

Meanwhile, gunmen posing as Iraqi security forces kidnapped 14 members of one family in the Diyala province north of Baghdad on Monday, police said. According to Reuters, they said the gunmen stopped a minibus carrying the 14 at a fake checkpoint near the town of Muqdadiya, 55 miles northeast of the capital. Those kidnapped included women and children, police said.

Also Monday, a train struck a minivan at an intersection near the town of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing a couple and 11 children, officials said. Zuhair al-Khafaji, an emergency room doctor at Hillah general hospital, said some of the children were the couple's and others were their nieces and nephews.